Loose Minilites!!!
Posted: Fri Dec 06, 2019 9:58 pm
I fitted Minilites years ago and have suffered a minor handling uncertainty, on fast bends (like 'No Name' at Goodwood), ever since. It felt like the rear wheels were toe-ing out with consequent oversteer but the tracking, front and rear, was fine. Following advice on this forum I checked threads on spinners and hubs for bottoming out, correct torques etc. and eventually learnt to 'drive through' this minor handling deficiency.
All Minilites (2sets) and collars bought new, from a very reputable UK Lotus specialist.
Recently, whilst searching again for the cause of this 'vagueness' inspection of the rear hubs, with an expert well versed in all things Lotus, 'witness' marks were noticed where the stainless clamping collar had made significant contact with the five webs on the rear hub. It was confirmed with BluTac that the spinners were clamping the collar against the hub, but that the wheel was slightly (indetectable really) loose against the hub. This was allowing toe-out when the rear became loaded in fast bends.
Problem: The clamping collars were too thick and were contacting the rear hub 'web' before the wheel was fully clamped.
Solution: Machine about 1mm off the thickness.
Now the rear wheels are clamped securely against the hub and the handling is superb!
This problem only arises at the rear wheels where the five webs in the hub allow an excessively thick collar to contact the webs before clamping the wheel.
All Minilites (2sets) and collars bought new, from a very reputable UK Lotus specialist.
Recently, whilst searching again for the cause of this 'vagueness' inspection of the rear hubs, with an expert well versed in all things Lotus, 'witness' marks were noticed where the stainless clamping collar had made significant contact with the five webs on the rear hub. It was confirmed with BluTac that the spinners were clamping the collar against the hub, but that the wheel was slightly (indetectable really) loose against the hub. This was allowing toe-out when the rear became loaded in fast bends.
Problem: The clamping collars were too thick and were contacting the rear hub 'web' before the wheel was fully clamped.
Solution: Machine about 1mm off the thickness.
Now the rear wheels are clamped securely against the hub and the handling is superb!
This problem only arises at the rear wheels where the five webs in the hub allow an excessively thick collar to contact the webs before clamping the wheel.